December 29th, 2007 Doug Donnelly
I wasn’t at the game so I don’t have details, but www.monroenews.com is reporting tonight that Whiteford beat Flat Rock 95-82. For a quick historical look: Whiteford’s 95 points is the most for a Bobcat team since it scored 104 vs. Whitmore Lake in 1998 — the final regular season game of the Eddie Sharpe Era when Sharpe scored 50 himself. It was also Whiteford’s first ever win against Flat Rock — the Rams beat them in the 1975 Class C District finals at Dundee. Here’s Whiteford’s all-time series records against all Monroe County Region team schools: Bedford (2-7), Dundee (8-17), Erie Mason (56-24), Flat Rock (1-1), Ida (24-40), Milan (0-1), Jefferson (4-3), New Boston Huron (6-0) and Summerfield (54-53).
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December 29th, 2007 Doug Donnelly
Whiteford and Flat Rock made it to the finals of the Emmanuel Christian Warrior Classic by winning semifinal games Friday. The Bobcats and Rams have met once before, with Flat Rock winning 77-67 in the 1975 Class C District finals at Dundee. It will be interesting to see the teams matched up Saturday night. Josh DuPree (Whiteford) and Devon Crain (Flat Rock) appear to be two of the best players in the Region this season. Watch out for Dave Gust of Whiteford, though. He could be a difference-maker. Flat Rock was coached last year by John Rice, who is now coaching at Toledo Bowsher. Rice coached Whiteford for 30 seasons before stepping down. Brad Stevens, one of his former players, now coaches at Whiteford. Flat Rock still has several players who played for Coach Rice last year, but Crain sat out last season. At Whiteford Rice coached three of Gust’s brothers — Nate, Joe and Jake — as well as Josh DuPree’s father, Everett.
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December 25th, 2007 Doug Donnelly
Merry Christmas. A quick word about holiday tournaments: I love them! I think its great when area teams get together for a Christmas-time feast of prep basketball. The annual Dundee Tournament is being slightly reformatted this year after one team dropped out. That leaves only Grosse Ile, Airport, Whiteford and Flat Rock as local teams in holiday tournament. Ron Montri will have a preview of the holiday tournaments this week in The Evening News. From a historical standpoint, there have been a lot of Christmas-time events in the Region over the years. Summerfield, in fact, recorded one of its biggest wins in team history in when in 1966 it beat Detroit Country Day to win the six-team Deerfield Christmas Tournament. Country Day would go on to win a Regional championship and had a 26-game win streak entering the tournament. Summerfield’s Gene Kwiatkowski was named tournament MVP. Do you have any holiday tournament memories? Post them. - DD
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December 21st, 2007 Doug Donnelly
Q-Who holds the Monroe County region girls basketball record for points in a game? A-Monroe High School. The Trojans beat Taylor Center in the final game of the 1980 regular season 99-26. Nine Trojans scored between 7 and 14 points. Oddly enough, however, The Evening News did not list any individual players’ names, so who led Wayne Rumple’s team in scoring that night is a mystery.
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December 21st, 2007 Doug Donnelly
Q-Who holds the Monroe County region girls basketball record for points in a game?A-Monroe High School. The Trojans beat Taylor Center in the final game of the 1980 regular season 99-26. Nine Trojans scored between 7 and 14 points. Oddly enough, however, The Evening News did not list any individual players’ names, so who led Wayne Rumple’s team in scoring that night is a mystery.
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December 20th, 2007 Doug Donnelly
The two most frequent comments I received from readers of the book so far are: 1) Where’s records on girls basketball? and 2) When will you do a football book?The answers are tough to say. I’ve collected a lot of girls basketball numbers, records and info over the years, but its far from publication-ready. Thanks to Evening News sports writer Niles Kruger for listing Ida girls basketball coach Tim Leonard’s record at Ida in Saturday’s paper — that will save me some time. I’m actively working on a football book, too, collecting info — some of which is already on our Web site (www.monroenews.com and click on high school football). I’ll keep plugging away at those record books. Someday I hope to see them in print.
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December 20th, 2007 Doug Donnelly
Who’s the greatest scorer in Monroe County Region boys basketball history?
Which coach has the most victories?
Okay, those answers might be easy. State Line Christian’s Todd Weber (2,370 points) and SMCC’s Ray Lauwers (587 wins) are well-known in local prep basketball circles.
But, do you know which prep basketball player was credited with a scoring championship, then the next day it was taken away when The Evening News ran a correction?
How about a game where one Region team had 52 turnovers? Or, do you remember a six-overtime game between Monroe Catholic Central and Tecumseh?
Those stories and more have been collected in one, 96-page, glossy-book. I have been working on the book for about 10 years, gathering materials and collecting information while doing other projects. Now, it has been put it into one reference guide.
The book is now on sale for $15 at the newspaper office, 20 W. First St. They can also be ordered online by visiting www.monroenews.com and clicking on the ad at the top of the sports page.
Sections include:
– Team by team pages, including win-loss records and coaches of every Region team for each year they have had boys basketball. Some of the data dates back to the 1928 season.
– Player section, including lists of 1,000 point scorers, annual scoring champions, Players of the Year and All-State selections.
– Coaching section, detailing the records of all Region boys coaches, from Jeff Adduci to Gene Zimmer.
– Honor teams – lists of every All-Region team since The Evening News began choosing a team in 1974.
There are a collection of columns written by sports editors Ron Montri and Bill Brenton, in which they chose the best players and teams in Region history, plus nearly 100 photographs of some of the greatest Region basketball stars ever, from Norm Weyher (Dundee) to Ted Tibbetts (Summerfield) to Rosie Barnes (Monroe) to Stan Joplin (Milan).
And, there are numerous stories, from Milan’s state championship to of 1948 to Dundee’s semifinal run in 1988. Bedford’s high-scoring 1969-70 team is featured, as is a dozen of the most unlikely upsets and last-second victories in local boys’ basketball history, including Monroe’s 1964 win over the Detroit Public School League champs.
It was a ton of fun putting the book together. I’d love to hear from people who have seen it. I will be using this blog as a way to talk about prep basketball in the Region, detail some new historical items I find as well as just talk about Region basketball history.
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December 20th, 2007 Doug Donnelly
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
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